Glorious Reality

God, the Creator of all things, is the most glorious, loving, wonderful, all-sufficient and all-satisfying Good in the entire universe!
He is perfect in all His ways—love, faithfulness, justice, grace, righteousness, mercy, compassion, beauty, and more—and He wants us to be with Him in His glory to enjoy Him forever.
This amazing and all-fulfilling offer is set before us for the taking if we love and cherish Him above all things.
This means that we view Him for who He is, honor Him for what He's worth, glorify Him as He deserves, and love Him with all our hearts.
This is the only fitting and proper response in our hearts and minds in order to be in sync with reality—the reality that we are sitting inside the realm of an eternal, all-powerful, all-wonderful, all-glorious, majestic and compassionate Creator who holds our lives in His hands by shear, sovereign grace.

How we have treated God

There is now just one problem: "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20).
And although we have seen these truths in God's creation and have known the evidence of God that is written on our hearts—our consciences bearing witness—we have neither glorified Him as God, nor have we given Him the thanks that He deserves.
We have not viewed Him for who He is, nor honored Him for what He's worth, nor glorified Him as He deserves, nor loved Him with all our hearts, but instead we have done the exact opposite.
We have viewed Him as blasphemously small, dishonored Him greatly by valuing other things above Him, exchanged His glory and goodness for the unsatisfying created world, and loved money, leisure, possessions, and vain pleasure over and above the everlasting, all-satisfying, all-sufficient King of the universe.
According to His perfect justice, all of us have become as one who is unclean, offensive, and hostile to God—committing high and abominable sins against the Most High that openly defy His beautiful and holy nature (Galatians 5:22-23).
We have performed indecent and detestable acts—having hearts and minds that are filled and darkened with pride, envy, and lust—while most of us have created a god in our own head that suits our own selfish desires.
So greatly have we profaned His infinite worth by beholding the grace and goodness of our Almighty Creator against the value of the created world, and through our actions and desires, our hearts have screamed,
"THE CREATOR OF THE WORLD IS LESS VALUABLE! THE ONE WHO SITS ON THE THRONE, WHO IS HIGH AND LIFTED UP, IS LESS WORTH OUR TIME, LESS WORTH OUR ATTENTION, AND LESS WORTH OUR AFFECTION THAN THE IDOLS WE SO LOVE!"

Houses, spouses, sex, food, children, careers, wealth, success, sports, television, movies, toys, furniture, ease, leisure, comforts, and the like have become the objects of our affection instead of God.
If we prefer any of these things above the all-satisfying, all-sufficient Creator of the universe—for whom we were made, and in whom is our only source of lasting fulfillment and happiness—then we have exchanged the all-surpassing greatness of the immortal God for idols (Romans 1:22-23).

We have completely separated ourselves from God

So vast and insurmountable is the division that exists between us and our glorious Creator, that we stand here today as complete outcasts.
How could we dare to show our faces again before such infinite worth and greatness, after having so horribly offended Him and disregarded His exceeding goodness?
The shame we would feel after standing in His presence for just a moment—in light of how we have treated Him—would be completely unbearable.
Moreover, this separation has been put in place by our own hands, our own choices, and our own desires.
All hope is lost...darkness is surrounding us...the goodness of God is fading...the gap between us and Him is widening...hell is approaching...doom and destruction are looming over us...

The Great News!

But wait! A King from another realm has come! He has made a way!
He is the promised one who has been sent down to us by the Gracious Father! He is the Son of God, the Savior of the world—the Lord Jesus Christ!
And through his long descent from the highest position in the heavenly realms to the lowest of places in this terrible, evil, pain-filled world, he has become for us a pathway across the great spiritual chasm that separates us from our Maker.
Through persecution, insults, hardships, suffering, rejection, temptation, floggings, mocking, beatings, crucifixion, and death—having the crushing weight of the sins of the world pressed down upon him, and the full wrath of the Father poured out upon him—he has become an atoning sacrifice to God on our behalf.
The punishment that we deserved was placed on him—the perfect, sinless Savior and King—who through all his glory, goodness, worth, and purity is able to take away the guilt and sins that we have so horribly offended God with. Therefore, through him alone a way has been made that brings us back into a right and all-satisfying relationship with the Father, revealed and illuminated to our darkened hearts by His Holy Spirit.

By pouring out His fierce wrath upon His own glorious, precious, and sinless Son, God's perfect justice has been fulfilled.
And so the insurmountable divide that existed between us and the eternal Father has been removed through our Lord Jesus Christ and his surpassingly glorious work on the cross.
He brings us to God! So, turn from your sins and embrace him with all your heart and with all your soul as your highest and greatest treasure, and he will grant you eternal life!
He is our only hope.